Recently, an interest in private health has become a large issue to ordinary people as well as older people and disabled people. Running machines developed by US department of defense in 1950' for physical test of soldiers are increasingly demanded since then in fitness centers to manage physical strength for ordinary people. Currently, the private health management is more than a simple concept of sport equipments and is integrated into an advanced IT technology, a robot technology and a bio-signal measurement and analysis technology, achieving an innovative development in automatic and personalized healthcare management types. Among them, the trend is that an image information process technology in which private health is monitored and cared using visual sensor information is integrated into other technologies such as robot technology, developing into a new IT fusion solution technology.
With the development of such technologies, a process of obtaining and monitoring an exercise procedure of an exerciser using a sensor, analyzing relevant information and feeding back exercise results and effects again is being executed in medical equipment, rehabilitation equipment, aging-friendly equipment and exercise equipment.
Especially, since image information using a visual sensor provides functions to obtain and analyze posture information of an exerciser, and correct the posture, it is true that the information is widely used to increase a private exercise ability or physical strength. Further, an IT technology to find out and recognize a specific object area out of an image that has obtained an exercise procedure of an exerciser has been used in golf and skate so as to provide a user's posture correction and personalized coaching.
For example, in case of golf, a study has been progressed to obtain exercise posture information of a user using a visual sensor, and analyze and correct a swing posture, or obtain exercise motion in a precise level with a sensor attached to a body, and analyze and correct posture information.
Meanwhile, with a highly-elated interest in horse-riding recently and a sharp increase of horse-riding people, a study is being progressed to train a horse-riding posture and provide a personalized service using a horse-riding simulator indoor. However, it is true that a study for recognizing and coaching a user's horse-riding posture using a visual sensor is imperceptible until now and there is an increased demand of a horse-riding posture recognition technology using a vision sensor in order to be used in a posture recognition training of general users.